Emerging in both Rome and Paris shortly after 1600, the baroque in art
and architecture soon spread throughout Europe, where it prevailed for one
hundred and fifty years. During this period new social and political
systems resulted in the concentration of power in the hands of individuals
with absolute authority. Architecture affirmed this -- through the structures
and decorative programs of palaces, churches, public and government
buildings, scientific and commercial buildings, and military installations.
Magnificent churches, fountains, and palaces attested to the renewed
strength of the popes in Rome, while architects also gave new forms to
churches for the Protestant and Russian Orthodox liturgies. Baroque
architects had been schooled in the classical Renaissance tradition,
emphasizing symmetry and harmonious proportions, but their designs revealed
a new sense of dynamism and grandeur. Renaissance architects had sought to
engage the intellect, with their focus on divine sources of geometry, while
their successors aimed to overwhelm the senses and emotions. Baroque
architects also mastered the unification of the visual arts -- painting,
sculpture, architecture, garden design, and urban planning -- to a remarkable
degree, producing buildings and structures with a heightened sense of drama
and power.

This exhibition brings together twenty-seven of the finest surviving
architectural models made in Europe between 1600 and 1750. Models enabled
architects to study their designs in three-dimensional form and allowed
prospective patrons to grasp immediately the essence of a proposal. Often
they were submitted to competitions for architectural commissions. Once a
project was under way, models were occasionally brought out for the laying
of the cornerstone and used to guide workmen during the course of
construction. The eighteenth-century Russian architect Vasily Ivanovich
Bazhenov explained the purpose of models: "In order to understand how
beautiful and excellent the building will really be [the architect] must
inevitably imagine it in perspective; and in order to be even more
convinced of it, he must make a model for it. Indeed the making of the
model is considered to be half the work."